Stickelback Covered Bridge
Kendall County, Newark. Built 2020, 45 ft. long. One of Illinois's newest covered bridges, a small Town-lattice-truss span over a stream near Newark.
Stickelback Covered Bridge is one of the newest additions to Illinois's short list of covered bridges, built in 2020 near the small Kendall County community of Newark — first laid out as Georgetown by founder George Hollenback back in 1835. At 45 feet, it's also one of the smallest covered spans in the state, built on a Town lattice truss over a local stream.
Details on the bridge's construction and namesake are sparse compared to Illinois's better-documented historic crossings, but its presence continues a building tradition that stretches back nearly two centuries in the state — proof that even as Illinois's original 19th-century covered bridges have dwindled to a handful of survivors, the covered bridge as a design still finds new champions willing to build one from scratch. Along with the Jackson, Wolf, and Captain Swift bridges, Stickelback represents the newer generation of authentic, truss-built covered bridges that have kept Illinois's covered bridge count from shrinking further.
